Quick guilty verdict for pair accused in Brampton realtor's murder

Devinder Kumar and wife Monica

BRAMPTON— Two men have been found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for a senseless killing so brutal, it brought tears to the eyes of veteran police officers testifying at trial.

Devinder Kumar, 38, of Brampton was viciously stabbed at least 29 times, his neck almost severed in half, on the side of The Gore Road in Caledon after he was ambushed and ran for his life on a chilly November day in 2011.

This afternoon, after just six hours of deliberations, a 14-member jury returned a verdict of guilty against both Marlon Nurse, 32, of Caledon and Darryl Plummer, 28, of Brampton.

The first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence, with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Kumar, a married father of two and a popular Brampton realtor, was lured to a house he was renting to Nurse on The Gore Road on Nov. 10, 2011, jurors heard during a lengthy trial.

He was attacked in the garage, but was able to escape and run toward the road, jurors heard.

Crown Mark Poland told jurors he was stabbed in the neck and upper back multiple times. Jurors heard he suffered at least 29 separate wounds, but there could have been more.

Poland showed chilling Blackberry Messenger (BBM) messages to jurors during the trial that showed the two plotting to rob and kill Kumar, first using a gun, but when they couldn’t get a gun, using “sharps”.

“I got a wicked plan that leads to no comeback,” Nurse wrote to Plummer, according to BBM messages introduced as evidence in court.

Poland told jurors during the trial that Plummer and Nurse had two motives for the killing. They both needed money, and Nurse told Plummer the realtor “rolls with deep pockets” and drove a Range Rover Plummer could have.

Nurse, on the other hand, was about to be evicted by Kumar and exposed as a fraud. Nurse had told friends and family that he owned the house he was actually renting, and created an illusion that he had money, education, and was successful in the film industry.

After bouncing cheques and falling behind on his rent, a broke Nurse was angry that Kumar was about to evict him, Poland told jurors.

Kumar had become, in Nurse’s words, “an annoyance”.

“When people annoy me, they get got,” Nurse wrote in a BBM message to Plummer.

The only way Kumar had apparently “annoyed” Nurse was by attempting to collect the $1,800 in rent Nurse owed him.

“He hasn’t p&%$ed me off yet, just at annoyance level. But I feel p&$# off coming soon,” Nurse wrote to Plummer.

The most vile of the messages was a response to a question from Plummer about what would happen if Kumar didn’t “go” the day they planned to kill him.

“Then he continues to p&%@ me off and I’m gonna rape his wife, burn down his house with his family tied up inside, then merc his partner and all his family then find his wife’s family and merc them,” Nurse wrote.

“The murder of Devinder Kumar, a man that had done no wrong, had harmed no one, was entirely and completely senseless,” Poland told jurors in his closing address Wednesday.

Jurors heard Kumar identified Nurse as his killer as he lay dying on the side of the road by pointing at his wounds, and then pointing at Nurse.

Kumar's wife Monica and many of his family and friends filled the courtroom each day of the trial, which began May 5.